Chapter 3: Social Justice- Welfare and Social Security and Healthcare! Oh My!

³⁶ “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?”³⁷ Jesus said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’³⁸ This is the first and great commandment. ³⁹ And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’⁴⁰ On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.”
                                                                      Matthew 22:36-40He has shown you, O mortal, what is good.
    And what does the Lord require of you?
To act justly and to love mercy
    and to walk humbly^[a] with your God.                                                                 Micah 6:8


“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
                                                          -John 13:34-35

Point blank:  Christians are to love one another.  And I think that means all "one anothers," not just other Christians.

With that preface, it goes without saying that Christians should care about social justice and caring for other people.  And that has been used by all political parties to call Christians to action- or call them out for inaction.

For the purposes of this discussion, lets look at the social justice issues most commonly argued- welfare/medicaid and social security/medicare first, then human and civil rights, abortion, and freedom of religion.  For the first two, charity will be a key point we discuss.

Welfare and Medicaid
Nicknamed entitlement programs by some, these programs often get a bad rap among the conservatives, and by a lot of Christians.  Why?

Their argument is that it is not helping people out of a bind, it is making them dependent.  Perhaps that it is being abused or even that it is fiscally irresponsible to pursue this program as is.  These are, honestly, good questions to ask.

But are they questions Christians should ask?

Jesus told us this in Matthew 5:42 " Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you."
No caveats, nor addendums- Jesus says give. 

We are to want to give to those in need- widows and orphans are in abundance these days, and so are the poor, the lame, the imprisoned we are told to love in Matthew 25:31-46.  

And that is the key- we are to give to them in love.

Charity.

I pose this question- is it love that calls us to give money to welfare recipients, or the law?

Perhaps it is love, but it is certainly not the same as giving food to a hungry person, or paying for someones bus fare when they are stranded, or helping some stranger out with a little cash.  I refer to charity as something I give willingly, not because the law will fine or imprison me for failure to go along with.  Am I right, Wesley Snipes?  (OK< bad example.)

I do not have a problem with the government helping the poor out.  That used to be the church's job, but we seem to either have quit or been over-extended- not sure which.  I have a GIGANTIC problem with churches that spend millions on facilities and a fraction of that on the poor- and yes, they exist and you may know who they are.

But, and I pose this as a 'devil's advocate-' what if our welfare and medicaid end up doing more harm than good?  What if it DOES create hangers on and people who are enslaved to a government program?  Is that not against the freedom and the true hope Christ possesses?

Jesus had hangers on.  He had people who wanted to follow Him just because He healed and did miraculous signs.  In Mark 1, he heals someone, they tell people and suddenly EVERYONE wants a piece of the miracle man.  So Jesus has to withdraw.  He did not want people to just take His miracles, He wanted them to hear the message.  Because that was the true healing.

Jesus wanted people free and rescued.

So, what do we do?  Stop welfare entirely?  Let everyone just fend for themselves?

I believe- just me, this is not the gospel- that we need to, as Christians, help people get free from welfare.  We need to be in the business of setting people free and helping them, not demonizing them.

Yes, it is frustrating that people on welfare abuse it- but they are just broken people like you and me.  I would love for the church to take over welfare and even health care aid (see, that's how Medicaid fits in).  For that to happen, fewer people need to need it, so in the meantime, the church needs to step up with providing the healing people need- job fairs, job training, financial and family planning- FOR FREE.  It's a modern miracle.  Imagine, a million dollars spent on that and not a gym.  Which would have a greater lasting impact?

Politically speaking, should we advocate ending the programs outright?  I don't think so, because such advocacy would be perceived as unloving- and we must never let people feel our intentions to make things better are unloving.

But to change the way the church does things is not unlike trying to change the government- both act like and are often bureaucracies.  Change must happen on a personal level.

We need to start filling the gap.

Social Security
Widows and orphans.

Social Security takes care of our seniors, so it kinda covers the widows thing.  But the talk and political question for Christians is not that dissimilar than the one for welfare- or is it?

Unlike welfare, people (in theory) pay into their own social security as a kind of minuscule retirement.  My mom collects my deceased dad's, most folks grandparents collect it and my generation's parents are starting to reach that age.  We don't want them to be without this often needed money.  And, it is THEIR money.

That, I think becomes the issue for Christians- is Social Security an act of good stewardship?

Personally, I don't think it is for me.  I do not believe the money I am putting in will yield any return and in fact I doubt it will exist for me when I am of age.  Numerous studies support that fear.  It was big reason why, when as an ordained minister I had the option to opt out of SS, I did.  I chose to put that money into my own retirement and other funds that were, I believe a better use of God's money.

I believe that stewardship question must be answered on an individual basis, as it was for me.  Personally, I want SS to exist for current and soon to be recipients.  They paid in, they should get out.  But for those of us who are young, I like the idea of it being optional.  Personally, from my view of stewardship.

But, like so many other things, SS is complicated and not so easy to break down on an individual basis.  So, we as Christians need to pray about and seek wisdom for ourselves, and prepare that even though we currently pay in, we may not receive that back.  Because it is the law to pay (unless the opt out is available as it was for ministers and some government employees).  

I believe, heartily, that we should never treat or speak of those receiving their SS after years of labor as being people getting handouts.  And even those getting SS not of age, must be spoken of and treated with respect- even if we disagree with the manner in which they receive their benefits.